It was incorporated in 1881 to extend the main line of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad north from Little Traverse Bay to the Straits of Mackinac.

The line passed through the Pennsylvania Railroad to Penn Central and was subsequently abandoned in 1992.

The company's [1] The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad established the company to extend its main line north from Little Traverse Bay to Mackinaw City, Michigan, on the Straits of Mackinac.

[3] The company was consolidated with the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad on October 1, 1884.

The line north of Petoskey, Michigan, including the entirety of the former Grand Rapids, Indiana and Mackinaw, remained with the bankrupt Penn Central estate and was not conveyed to Conrail in 1976.